Two years ago, eight earthworks became Ohio’s first UNESCO World Heritage site.
At the time, one of those locations, the Octagon Earthworks in Newark, was still being used as a private golf club. That only changed at the beginning of this year, when Ohio History Connection, the state’s historic organization, opened the Octagon as a park. On January 1st, they welcomed a crowd of about 800 people.
Nine months on, the roughs and greens are gone. Weeds sprout in untended sand traps, and paved golf cart paths end in seemingly odd places.
Change is slow at the Octagon. OHC’s Chief Director of Historic Sites, Jennifer Aultman, uses the word “deliberate.”
“We’re often asked if we want to erase the golf course. And that's not all the intention. We're history people. Every part of the site's history is important,” Aultman said. “From a restoration point of view, this is something the historic field are always balancing. We want to restore a place to its period of greatest cultural significance. In this case, World Heritage makes that clear."
World Heritage
World Heritage sites are approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee. Places that earn the designation are considered to be of outstanding value to all of humanity.
The Octagon and another earthworks in Newark, the Great Circle, along with six other earthworks, were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Sept. 19, 2023.
Newark’s Octagon is an eight-sided geometric figure connected to a slightly smaller circle by a set of parallel walls. From inside the earthworks, the mounds are about eye-height for an adult. Aultman said the structure is aligned to an 18.6-year cycle that tracks the rising and setting of the moon.
“We know that ancient people who were here 2,000 years ago had watched the moon for generations in order to figure this out,” Aultman said.
Saving the earthworks
The Octagon and The Great Circle in Newark are estimated to be about 2,000 years old. They only survived this long because the citizens of Licking County decided to keep them around.
“Back in the mid-1800s, they voluntarily raised their taxes to buy these properties. So, they've never been plowed. They haven't been developed on,” said Sarah Hinkleman, who manages both earthworks for OHC.
Once, both “sites” would have been connected, as part of one sprawling 4.5 square mile earthworks complex. The rest of the mounds have since been buried under houses, farm fields, and streets.
And the remaining sites weren’t saved purely for historical purposes. The Great Circle was used as the county fairgrounds for about 70 years. The Octagon became a training grounds for the Ohio Militia.
When the militia outgrew the site, Licking County leased it to Moundbuilders County Club. Hinkleman said the golf club opened its doors in 1910. In the 1930s, the county deeded ownership of the property to what is now Ohio History Connection, but the golf course remained.
After a lengthy legal battle, OHC bought out Moundbuilders’ lease last year.
Adapting the golf course
The stately brick clubhouse that once sported a golf pro shop and a bar is slowly being turned into a visitors’ center.
“It doesn't look too much like a visitor center yet,” Hinkleman admitted.
In the entranceway, information about the grounds is displayed on posterboards propped on easels. Folding tables hold pamphlets and rocks. A bar area has been converted into a small bookshop that holds Hopewell Earthworks-branded merchandise and a selection of volumes about American Indian culture and history.
What was the men’s locker room will one day be a gallery and exhibition space. Right now, the bases of the lockers still stick up.
Outside, there’s even more work to be done.
Mapping history
Ohio History Connecting is documenting current conditions at the site before making any major changes – mapping cart paths, sand traps and tee boxes. They’re also using geophysical techniques to “see” underground without digging.
“We don't remove anything that is significant to 2000 years ago,” Aultman said.
OHC also is consulting with 45 tribal nations that have historic ties to Ohio. The earthworks are so old that they can’t be traced to any one tribe that exists today, Aultman said.
Aultman said in 10 years, the sand traps and tee boxes should be gone. Some cart paths will stay for accessibility reasons, while others will be removed. The county club’s pool will be ripped out.
Today, tall trees dot the inside of the Octagon. Aultman said that historical evidence shows that likely wasn’t the case 2,000 years ago. People likely used controlled burns to maintain a prairie, she said.
So, as the trees die, OHC will not replace them. Slowly, OHC hopes to turn back time to when the earthworks were a ceremonial meeting place for American Indians from across the continent.